


Three words

by Ta_Moe



Category: Merlin (TV) RPF
Genre: Angst, Complete, First Kiss, Fluff, M/M, Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-13
Updated: 2013-01-13
Packaged: 2017-11-25 08:17:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,609
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/636925
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ta_Moe/pseuds/Ta_Moe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"“You know, you tell all your friends you love them, even Katie and Angel“, Bradley complained.<br/>Colin shrugged, “So?“<br/>“You never say that to me“, the blonde sounded affronted, almost hurt."</p>
            </blockquote>





	Three words

“...love you too“, Colin said into the phone, grinning and turned it off.  
Bradley was watching him wide eyed.  
“What?“, Colin asked, looking at his friend with a raised eyebrow.  
“You know, you tell all your friends you love them, even Katie and Angel“  
Colin shrugged “So?“  
“You never say that to me“, he sounded affronted, almost hurt.  
The dark haired boy stilled, sighed and exhaled loudly, “I didn't think it would bother you that I didn't“  
“Well, it does“, Bradley was obviously sulking, which made Colin chuckle, “I'm your best mate, you know. If anyone is supposed to get your love it's me“  
He really WAS pouting, it made Colin smile even broader and his grin wouldn't leave his face, spreading wider until it was nearly reaching his ears.  
“That's no laughing matter, don't make fun of me, Morgan!”, Bradley snorted and glared at his friend.  
Colin tried to suppress his giggling, but failed miserably, “Oh, Bradley”  
“What?”  
“You know I love you!?”, Colin said grinning.  
Bradley's face lightened and he quickly nodded, grinning smug “Hehe, I know”

It was only a week later, that Bradley confronted Colin again.  
“You keep saying it to your friends on the phone, but I never get the 'love you' at all”, he was pouting, arms crossed in front of his chest.  
Colin eyed him warily, “Well, as you said 'on the phone' We are rarely on the phone with each other”  
Bradley looked at him, thinking. Then he turned away from his friend, walked off towards his trailer and sat down on the steps in front of it. He took out his mobile phone and only seconds later Colin's phone rang. The dark haired boy sighed and took out his own, pressed the accept button and glared towards Bradley, who he could still see rather clearly, “What, James?”  
“Just wanted to tell you, that I'll go to the canteen now, see you later on set”  
Colin growled, “Great, whatever. You could have just told me one minute ago, or come OVER here to tell me”  
“No, then the whole purpose of me calling you would be gone to the dogs”  
“Right”  
There was silence.  
“I'll go now”, Bradley said, “See you around, mate”  
Colin sighed, “Yeah, see you”  
There was a pause again.  
“Hang up, Bradley?”  
“Col', you still haven't said it”  
“Don't tell me, you'll wait until I tell you?”  
“Yes, I will”  
Colin took a deep breath, was glad Bradley couldn't see his flushed face at that moment and said, “you really will not hang up?”  
“Yes, and if YOU do, I swear, I'll make your life a living hell, Col', so don't you dare hang up on me!”  
Colin nodded, even though he knew, Bradley most likely couldn't see him, “Okay, well”  
He paused a moment and whispered, “See you around, love you buddy”  
Colin could swear he could see Bradley grinning in his most smug and winning way, when he said, “Yeah, I know”  
Then he hung up and Colin wondered, why Bradley was so keen about him telling him this, when he didn't even return the favour.  
He looked up and saw Bradley waving at him. Colin rose his hand to do the same, when his blond friend had already vanished around a corner of another trailer.

Even after that Colin didn't say those words to Bradley and it started to annoy the other man pretty much, since he heard him saying it on a daily basis to his other friends, even to Katie, when all she did was get him an ice cold drink during a hot break in between shoots.  
“Tell me, Colin”, he stood in front of his friend, arms akimbo.  
“What now, Bradley?” the boy asked, not even looking up from his script, sitting in his chair in the shadow of a large tree.  
“Why won't you say it?”  
Colin sighed, “I dunno what you are on about”  
“Oh, you do know, Mr. Morgan”  
“No, I don't”  
“Why is it NO problem to say it to everyone else, but me?”, Bradley kicked him softly on his boots.  
“This is not about what I think it is about again, is it?!”, he glared up at his friend in annoyance.  
“It most certainly is”, Bradley growled, “I kinda feel left out, you even randomly tell Anthony or Richard you love them-”  
“They are my friends”, Colin interrupted him.  
“So am I!”, Bradley snorted, “So tell me, why won't you say it to me – just as randomly as you tell Katie or Angel or even Eoin how much you love them?”  
His eyebrows were furrowed, arms crossed in front of his chest now and he was looking down at him with an expression that Colin couldn't call anything else but hurt.  
“I... it's...”, he paused, “complicated”  
“How?”  
Colin sighed, and looked away, “You are different”  
He felt his face getting hot and his heart started to beat in an enormous speed.  
“So, you don't like me as much as you like the others and that's why you won't say that you love me?”  
Colin shook his head, annoyed about how dumb his friend could sometimes be, “No, it's the other way round, dumb ass”  
Bradley opened his mouth to retort something, but shut it again, as Colin's words sank in. His eyes widened in surprise and he flushed a little.  
“If it doesn't mean anything it's easy to say, you know?”, Colin went on and drew circles with his Merlin boots on the dirty ground.  
“You don't say - that - because … it means something if you're saying it to me?”, Bradley asked carefully, shoulders tense and he eyed his co-star nervously.  
Colin fixed his floor paintings and nodded.  
“Uhm...”, Bradley looked around, scratched his neck and let out a big sigh, “We... I should probably go... erm- and … learn my lines... again”  
Only now his friend looked up at him, opening his lips to say something, but Bradley wouldn't give him a chance and left, telling him: “See you... later, erm... mate”  
He'd been dumped, Colin knew for sure. And it hit him bitterly, his eyes stung and he felt tears welling up, but he'd sworn himself to be professional about everything, even his girly crush on his best friend and co-star. Thus he quickly stood up, ran to the closest sink, splashed his reddened face with cold water and made sure no one would be able to figure out he'd been about to cry.

“Have you been crying?”, Katie asked Colin some minutes later right before they were to shoot a scene together.  
He felt caught and forced a smile, answering maybe a little bit too fast, “No!?”  
She eyed him suspiciously and gave him a pat on the shoulder, “Let's get this done and afterwards we can talk about it, okay?”  
“No, Katie. Everything's alright”  
She looked at him sympathetically, heaving a sigh, indicating she wouldn't let it slip and wasn't fooled by his acting, which was perfect when it came to his job, but really bad, when it came to his personal feelings or private life. He was, just like Merlin, an open book.  
Bradley walked past their filming location, towards his trailer, stopping to watch them for a moment and Katie caught a glimpse of Colin's tense expression when his and Bradley's eyes met for a second. Then the blond man in armour walked on and out of sight.

“Did Bradley do something?”, Katie asked carefully, after they finally got their scene wrapped up and allowed to take a break under a tree, keeping them nicely hidden in shadows.  
Colin looked up at her, “Why do you think that?”  
She sighed and furrowed her brows, “Well, when he watched us shooting, he seemed kinda miserable and you were really tense when you saw him too”  
“You must be imagining things, Katie”, Colin laughed it off and took a gulp of water out of his bottle.  
“If you say so”, she stared at her friend for a little while, then her lips parted and her smile widened into a wide evil grin, “I could ask him, he's right over there”  
For a second Colin was startled and maybe he even let out a very quiet yelp of horror.  
The pretty woman stood up, about to walk over to the man in armour, getting ready for a battle-scene, when Colin grabbed her wrist and stopped her, “Wait”  
Katie turned around to look at him, smiling sympathetically, “Will you tell me?”  
Colin nodded shyly and she sat down in her chair next to him again.  
“I... I dunno. You know, Bradley has been acting really weird these past days. He wants me to tell him that I love him all the time-”  
Katie's eyes widened in surprise, “He does?”  
“Yeah”, Colin sighed, “but don't get me wrong, he doesn't mean anything by it. I still have to figure out why he was so persistent about it”  
“And did you tell him?”, if she was too excited for a normal person about this whole thing, Colin didn't let it show.  
“Yeah, all he said was 'I know'. What the hell-”  
“Oh”, Katie's voice fell flat and her happy grin made space for a knowing laugh, “Star Wars”  
Colin looked at her irritated, “What?”  
“It's a quote. When princess Leia tells Han that she loves him – that one time, where he gets frozen in, he only answers 'I know'”  
“You really think, Bradley would make me say that only for that kinda stupid reason?”, he thought about it, “Yeah, you may be right. He actually would do something like that”  
“And that's all? Then why are you so upset?”  
“That's not everything, Katie”, Colin hung his head and closed his eyes, “I kinda told him, I really... do like him” He felt his face flush beet red and could already see Katie's happy fan girl grin in front of his inner eyes.  
“Do you?”  
She didn't laugh, her voice sounded serious and sympathetic.  
“Yeah, I know it's stupid. God, why do I even tell you”  
“What did he say?”  
Colin looked up, watching Bradley fighting in the distance, “Actually, nothing”  
Katie stared at him in shock, “Nothing?”  
“Nothing, he just went off”, Colin took a deep breath, “He dumped me, Katie and now we can't even be friends any more. I thought... if he wanted me to say... I mean... did I only read things into his behaviour, because I wanted it?”  
“No, I don't think you read anything wrongly, Colin”, she patted his shoulder, “He's just a little slow and dumb sometimes, you have to give him some time to really understand what you mean, I guess everything is gonna be fine”  
“I wish he would just forget about it and we could be like before. If only I hadn't said anything”, tears started to well up again in Colin's eyes and he rubbed them away with his Merlin jacket sleeve.  
“No, and it's too late anyway”, Katie smiled at him and patted his shoulder, “It's probably good it happened”  
“Why?”  
“Better for both of you”, Katie said and winked at him.  
Colin just stared at her in confusion and watched her walk towards Bradley, who turned around to greet her. He gave her a slap on the shoulder and grinned widely. Katie gestured at Colin, who slumped a little into his chair, afraid of Bradley's gaze. The blonde man looked at his friend and even from the distance he was sure Bradley's stare was tense and his lips pressed tightly on to each other. Colin saw Katie shoving the man in armour, indicating him to go over to him. Bradley stumbled and glared at her, but obeyed. His head down, eyes fixing the ground, he came walking towards his co-star.  
“Hey”, he said, scratching his neck, looking somewhere right behind Colin.  
The boy nodded, “Hi”  
“Erm”, Bradley began and sat down next to him, finally, “Katie said... I mean... we really need to talk, huh?”  
“Mh?”, Colin mumbled, looking down, “I don't know what you are talking about”  
Bradley stared at him, then he forced a smile and nodded, “Yeah – it's nothing... all been a misunderstanding on my part right?”  
“Misunderstanding? Yeah, right – true”, Colin nodded.  
“We'll just forget about it, mate”, Bradley looked into the distance, “Er, and we have a scene in 20 minutes, so we should probably get ready”  
Colin glanced at him, “Yeah, sure”

Surprisingly enough for Colin he didn't have any problems filming and hanging around with Bradley the whole day, but once he came back to his hotel room and found himself alone with a set of DVDs on his table he had planned to watch with Bradley, something inside of him stilled and he slumped to the ground, crying bitterly. 

The next day proofed to be an even bigger challenge than the days, weeks and months before, he had spent secretly in love with Bradley. A key scene was about to be filmed. Arthur, already aware of Merlin's magic, had just seen the very same sorcerer after a long absence from Camelot again. They met in a forest, looking at each other from a distance, eyes lingering maybe just a little too long. Arthur's hair stuck damp to his forehead, his shirt blood stained. Merlin's eyes widened in shock and worry. He took some steps towards the prince. Arthur followed his example, only his steps were quicker and bigger. And they both fell into a faster pace, until they were running, arms moving in rhythm back and forth, their breath's heavy. Finally, they met in a crashing hug and if their cheeks brushed for a second no one seemed to realize or care.  
They heard 'cut' and redid the scene again and again. And every time Colin found his own heart beating a little more, a little faster, a little louder and he hoped that Bradley wouldn't realize. 

Once they were done with the filming of the hug-scene-of-doom, as Colin had started to call it, he quickly ran off the set towards the toilets and locked himself into one of the stalls, taking out his mobile phone and quickly typed a message to Katie, telling her about the scene and his conversation before. The answer came quickly, “You idiot, you really need to tell him, what's really going on. He knows it already anyway, don't think he'd be stupid enough to not have figured it all out” Colin smiled as he read the end of the message: “And tell him, if he brakes your heart, I will break him” He turned his mobile off again and opened the door of his stall, letting his phone slide into his pockets and not looking up while doing so, that he suddenly bumped with his lowered head into something hard. He rubbed his nose and looked up, finding himself face to face with Bradley, still in armour and a blood stained face.  
“Oh”, he said startled and took a step back to make space for his friend to pass him, since the restrooms didn't have much room, “sorry”  
Bradley stayed silent and stared at him thoughtfully.  
“Is... something wrong?”  
No answer.  
“Uhm... you need the toilet?”, Colin tried again, playing with his phone in his pocket.  
The blonde man looked down at Colin's moving hand and rose an eyebrow, “What have you been doing here?”  
Colin blushed, “What kinda question is that, James?”  
Bradley flushed too, now, “I mean... You didn't flush”  
“Were you eavesdropping on me?”  
“No!”, Bradley exclaimed, “I'm just... I mean... god”, he went with his right hand through his still dirty hair, “Colin, come on. We can't pretend as if nothing ever happened”  
Colin eyed him suspiciously, “Well, nothing did happen”  
Bradley knitted his eyebrows in disappointment, “come on, don't treat me like a fool”  
“I'm not – YOU ran away, when I told you the truth!”, Colin pointed out and lifted his finger to Bradley's face, who stared at him surprised.  
“I-”, he began, “I'm sorry”, he looked down, “but I didn't know what to say”  
“Well, you could have just said SOMETHING. Anything would have been better than nothing, Bradley. I was not only hurt but really disappointed as well. I always had thought you were a better-”

At that Bradley grabbed Colin at his Merlin scarf and pulled him in, sealing his lips with a rough kiss. They fell back into the close wall, Colin's body pressed to Bradley's, Arthur's armour poking into Merlin's jacket and shirt, but Colin didn't care how uncomfortable it felt, or how much the hard material against his soft skin hurt. He brought his hands towards Bradley's face and neck, pulling himself closer, until it became almost impossible to tell apart which part was Bradley and which part belonged to Colin. Only when they felt the need to breath again did they part, looking at each other through fogged eyes. Bradley stared at Colin's red swollen lips and he moved in again, to get another taste, now putting his arms around the other man's waist, holding him in place. Colin's lips parted and he let out a content sigh, when Bradley's tongue finally found his own in a slow but longing dance.  
A sudden rattle at the door of the restroom made them pull away in a rush and Bradley disappeared wordlessly into one of the stalls, whereas Colin moved over to one of the sinks, splashing his face in hope no one would be able to realize his flushed face and beating heart. It was Anthony who made his way in and he stopped for a split second at the rushed movements of Colin and the sudden disappearance of Bradley.  
“Hey, boys”, he then said smiling and made his way to a free stall.

Colin quickly left the restroom, not once looking back whether Bradley was following him or not. His face was still hot and he could still feel the touch of Bradley's lips on his. Even the thought made him blush and he shook his head to make it disappear.  
Suddenly his mobile phone rang and made him stop in his tracks. He answered it and a very familiar voice was speaking to him in a happy voice: “Where did you go, Col'?”  
“Bradley”, Colin said quietly, “I was just leaving, have a scene in some minutes, remember?”  
“Right... and here I thought you think I'm a bad kisser and left”, he pretended to be hurt.  
Colin chuckled into his phone, “Haha, no. You are the WORST!”  
Bradley's voice got even sulkier, “Oh? Do you?” and he suddenly shut his phone off.  
“Then I guess, you don't wanna repeat that?!”  
Colin looked around, just to find Bradley smirking at him from behind a tree, his phone in his hands.  
“Uhm...”, was everything Colin could muster up as an answer.  
“What kind of answer is that?”; Bradley snickered, “Come on, tell me what you want, MORgan!”  
Colin flushed and glanced at the people around them, “Yeah... I'd like to repeat it” Then he smiled at his friend, “And I lied”  
“I know”, Bradley smirked, walking passed Colin, brushing his shoulder lightly, “My room, 10 pm”  
Colin blushed and nodded.

After their daily work was done, Colin was finally standing in front of Bradley's door, still unsure weather to knock or not. Eventually the door was opened and Bradley was smiling at him and his raised fist, ready to knock, but hovering in the air.  
“Whatcha gonna do with that hand? Punch me?”, Bradley joked and pulled his friend inside, “Why don't you make yourself comfortable”  
Colin placed himself on Bradley's bed, feeling the soft covers underneath his fingertips. It sure wasn't his first time in Bradley's room or even on his bed, but suddenly everything had changed.  
Bradley handed him a cup of tea but he himself drank from a can of beer.  
“What's with the tea?”; Colin asked irritated.  
“Well, it's something you drink, Colin!”, Bradley slowly pointed out, taking a sip from his beer.  
“Yeah, I know that”, Colin said lost in thoughts. He had been sure he had known what Bradley's invitation had meant, but apparently he had been wrong.  
“So”, Bradley suddenly broke the silence, “What happened today was...”  
Colin looked at him, waiting, “What?”  
Bradley, “Yes, exactly. What was it?”  
“I... don't think I can follow you”, Colin said, his eyebrows raised.  
“I mean... what you said before... what exactly did it mean?”, Bradley looked him straight into his eyes.  
Colin swallowed hard, “What do you think?”

Bradley was silent.  
“Come on, you know EXACTLY what it meant, don't play dumb now, it's too late anyway”, Colin snorted.  
“Uhm”, Bradley hesitated and played with the can in his hand, until Colin took it and placed it and his own cup on the ground far enough so they wouldn't accidentally push it over. Then he moved forward and placed a gentle kiss on Bradley's lips.  
“That's what it means, okay?”, Colin said quietly and took the other's hands into his own.  
“You still won't say it?”  
Colin looked at him and closed his eyes for a second, then opened them again and said: “Why do you never say it?”  
Bradley flushed, “Well... that's because...”  
“Because?”  
“I … feel stupid saying it”  
Colin snorted, “Well, so do I”  
“No, you say it all the time to everyone”, Bradley said and he almost sounded sulking for real.  
“I'll say it when you say it”  
Bradley stared at him. And even Colin wasn't sure any more if they actually were still talking about the same thing.  
“I love you”, Bradley whispered.  
“I know”, Colin answered and smirked.

end

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this long before series 5 had aired, so the bit with filming scenes for Merlin does not fit the show, sorry about that.  
> Sorry for any mistakes I made in grammar or spelling: they are finder's keepers ;D


End file.
